NASA manages to deflect the asteroid’s trajectory in defense of the Earth

The ship of the Dart mission voluntarily collided with Dimorphos on September 26 and is the first to test this technique

Playback / Youtube / Nasa

The Dart mission ship is the first to test this practice

A NASA On Tuesday, 11, an asteroid deviated from its trajectory, during a test of humanity’s ability to protect itself from a possible threat. A spacecraft from the Dart mission voluntarily collided with the asteroid Dimorphos on September 26, which is a satellite of a larger asteroid called Didymos. In this way he managed to move it, reducing its orbit in 32 minutes, the head of the space agency, Bill Nelson, informed at a press conference. This is “a defining moment for planetary defense and a defining moment for humanity,” Nelson said. It would already have been “considered a great success to reduce the orbit by about 10 minutes. But it actually reduced it by 32, ”he stressed. With this mission, “we show the world that NASA is serious about defending this planet,” he concluded. Dimorphos, located 11 million kilometers from Earth at the moment of impact, has a diameter of about 160 meters and poses no danger to the planet. Its orbit around the Sun passes just seven million kilometers from Earth at its closest point. Mission manager Andrea Riley said on the day of the spacecraft’s launch that, while not a risk, “it’s important to do this before you discover a real need.” The unprecedented “planetary defense” mission called Dart is the first to test this technique and has allowed NASA to train for the possibility that an asteroid may someday threaten to strike Earth. Land.